Vediovis

Summary

Vediovis

Calendar

Roman

Date

May 21 Every year

Description

In Etruscan and Roman mythology Veiovis, Veive or Vediovis, was an old Italian or Etruscan deity.

Aulus Gellius, in the Noctes Atticae, speculated that Veiovis was the inverse or ill-omened counterpart of Jupiter; compare Summanus. Aulus Gellius observes that the particle ve- that prefixes the name of the god also appears in Latin words such as vesanus, "insane," and thus interprets the name Veiovis as the anti-Jove. Aulus Gellius also informs us that Veiovis received the sacrifice of a female goat, sacrificed ritu humano;[1] this obscure phrase could either mean "after the manner of a human sacrifice" or "in the manner of a burial."[2]

He has been identified with Apollo, with the infant Jupiter, and as the Anti-Jupiter (i.e. the Jupiter of the Lower World) as suggested by his name. In art, he was depicted as a youth holding a laurel wreath and some arrows, next to a goat. He had a temple between the two peaks of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, where his statue had a beardless head and carried a bundle of arrows in his right hand. It stood next to a statue of a goat. He was probably a god of expiation and the protector of runaway criminals. Sacrifices were made to him annually on March 7.